Dunhuang Commandery

Dunhuang Commandery 敦煌郡
Former subdivision of Western Han → successive Chinese dynasties
111 BCE–602 CE
Capital	Shazhou (沙州, modern urban Dunhuang)
Historical era	Imperial China
• Established	111 BCE
• Disestablished	602 CE
Today part of	Dunhuang, Gansu

Dunhuang Commandery (敦煌郡) was the western-most commandery of the Chinese empire, guarding the terminus of the Hexi Corridor on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Created during the reign of Emperor Wu (111 BCE), it served for more than seven centuries as a strategic military, administrative, and cultural outpost linking the Central Plains to the Western Regions. Although the formal commandery was dissolved in early Sui times, Dunhuang remained a prefecture and later the seat of the quasi-independent Guiyi Circuit.

Geography and administrative layout

The commandery’s seat lay at Shazhou (Dunhuang), beside the Tang River oasis. At its greatest extent (Eastern Han) Dunhuang Commandery administered eleven counties:

• Shazhou 沙州
• Guazhou 瓜州
• Yangguan 陽關
• Yumen 玉門
• Qilian 祁連
• Xi 曲
• Changjue 昌𤆣
• Zhi 支
• Luohe 洛
• Lufu 盧夫
• Piqian 鄱千

Censuses in 2 CE recorded c. 38 000 households; by 140 CE this had fallen below 23 000 because of nomad raids and desertification.

Western Han foundation (111 BCE – 9 CE)

Following General Li Guangli’s campaigns against the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu split the newly won Hexi Corridor into four commanderies—Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang (111 BCE). Garrison colonies (tuntian) and beacon towers stretched west to the twin gates of Yangguan and Yumen Pass, where the Great Wall terminated. Silk Road caravans were registered here before entering the Western Regions.

Xin interlude and Eastern Han consolidation (9 – 220)

During Wang Mang’s Xin dynasty (9–23) local Qiang uprisings forced evacuations, but the restored Eastern Han court re-established control under generals Dou Rong and Ban Chao. The commandery became the launch-pad for Han protectorates in the Tarim Basin; officials such as Du Qin served simultaneously as Dunhuang Administrator and Protector General of the Western Regions.

Three Kingdoms & Western Jin (220 – 316)

Under Cao Wei the region was defended by the frontier general Deng Ai. Dunhuang’s Administrator continued to command mixed Han-Hu militias. After the fall of Western Jin, the oasis survived as a semi-independent polity under local magnates such as Zhang Gui (precursor of Former Liang).

Sixteen Kingdoms & Northern dynasties (317 – 581)

Control of Dunhuang passed successively to Former Liang, Later Liang, Northern Liang, and briefly the Rouran Khaganate. When Northern Wei reunified the north (439), Dunhuang was renamed Shazhou Commandery but retained its Han-style county system. Buddhist cave construction at Mogao accelerated under Northern Zhou patronage.

Sui & early Tang (581 – 763)

The Sui dynasty abolished most commanderies in 602, merging Dunhuang into Shazhou Prefecture (沙州). The early Tang dynasty fortified the region as a pivot of the Four Garrisons of Anxi. In 763, however, the Tibetan Empire seized Dunhuang amid Tang’s internal rebellions.

Tibetan occupation & Guiyi Circuit (763 – 1036)

Tibetan rule lasted until 848, when the Dunhuang native Zhang Yichao raised a revolt and pledged allegiance to Tang. His successors, beginning with Cao Yijin, ruled the oasis as the semi-autonomous Guiyi Circuit (歸義軍), preserving late-Tang institutions and sponsoring the famous library cave (Mogao Cave 17) cache of manuscripts.

Song, Western Xia, and Yuan periods

The commandery framework never returned, but Dunhuang/Shazhou Prefecture oscillated between the Song, Western Xia, and (after 1227) Yuan frontiers. Administrative memory of the Han commandery nevertheless persisted in official gazetteers.

Archaeology and cultural legacy

Thousands of Dunhuang documents—contracts, military reports, Buddhist sutras—unearthed at Mogao and Yumen Pass have illuminated frontier governance, Silk Road trade, and the everyday life of soldier-farmers. Beacon towers, tamarisk palisades, and sections of Han rammed-earth walls remain visible in the desert.

See also

• Hexi Corridor
• Four Garrisons of Anxi
• Mogao Caves
• Guiyi Circuit
• Western Regions

Bibliography

• Fan Ye. Book of the Later Han (後漢書).
• Wei Zheng et al. Book of Sui (隋書) – Treatise on Geography.
• Rong Xinjiang. “Dunhuang and the Road to the Western Regions.” In *The Silk Road: A New History*.
• Xinru Liu. The Silk Road in World History. 2010.